St. Landry democrat., 1887-02-19

I believed. In her service let mo lie.
From her doors let me be buried. y,
church of God Thou home Of the righteous!
Thou harbor from tempest! Thou refuge
for the wearyl Thou lighthouse Of many
nations Thou type of Heaven! ! could
kiss thy very dust with ecstasy OF atec-
| ton.
FOR her my tears shall fall, :
| For her my prayers ascend,
TO her my tolls and cares be given
| Till tolls and cares shall end
! l"Perfumed SMOKE" says Solomon, ID
the words following my text Not like the
fumes coughed up from the throat OF q
steam pipe, or poisoned with the gases OF
chemical factories, or floating in black
wrath from the CONGREGATIONS OF nome
steads, or sulphErous from blazing DatteS-
les; but sweet as a burning grove OF emma
mon, or Jungle Of sassafras, or the doors OF
Q temple censor. "Who is this that cometn
out of the wilderness like pillars OF smoke:
perfumed with myrrh and franklncenses.
Hear it, men and women everywhere. tnat
the advance of the genuine church VI
Christ means peace for all nations.
Victor Hugo, in his book entitled "Nlne-
ty Three" says: Nothing calmer Ihah
smoke. but nothing more startling. There
ones. The thickness and color Of line
of smoke make the whole difference be-
tween war and peace, between fraternity
and hatred. The whole happiness OF man
or his complete misery is sometimes ex-
pressed in this thin vapor which the Wlno
scatters at willn The g~sat Frenchman
was right; but I go further, and say tha1
as the Kingdom of God advances like Pill
lars of smoke, the black volumes belchlng
from batteries Of war and pouring out from
port-holes of ships will vanish from the
sky.
A distinguished gentleman OF the late
war told me recently that Abraham LIN
coin proposed to avoid our civil conflict by
Duh chase of all the slaves Of the South and
setting them free. He calculated what
would be reasonable price for them, ard,
when the number of millions OF dollars
that would be required for such purpose
was announced, the proposition was secuted,
and the North would not have made
the offer and the South would not have
accepted it if made. But" said my mill
tarv friend, 'sthe war went on, and just the
number of millions of dollars that Mr.
Iitscoln calculated would have been enough
toEnake reasonable purchase of all the
slMes were spent in war, besides all the
pr&ious lives that were hurled away in the
t@ hundred and fifty battles" In other
" :rds, there ought to be some other way
fE men to settle their controversies with
= wholesale butehery.
,t.-e church of God will yet become the
arDiter of nations. If the world would al
low it, it could today step in between Ger
many and France and settle the trouble
about Alsace and Lorraine, and between
Russia and Bulgaria, and between England
| onH hatwapn all the
other nations that are flying at each others
Threats, and command peace and dlsband
armies and harness for the plow the war
horses now being hitched to ammunition
wagons or saddled for cavalry charge.
, That time must come, or through the IN
creased facility for shooting men and blow
! ing up cities and whelming hosts to
> instant death, so that we can kill regi-
, ment easier than we could once
, kill company, and kill brigade
easier than we could once kill regiment,
, the patent offices of the world more busy
, than ever in recognizing the enginery OF
destruction, the human race will after
, awhile 60 fighting with one arm, and hob
! bling with one foot, and stumbling along
I with one eve, and some ingenious inventor
t inspired of the archangel of all mischief
will contrive a machine that will bore {
+ hole to the earth's center, and some des
, perate nation will throw into that hole
enough dynamite to blow this hulk of &
planet into fragments, dropping like me
, | teoric stones on surrounding stellar habi
q Gations.
t But this shall not be- for whatever else
z let 60 I hang on to my Bible, which tell:
0 me that the blacksmith's shop shall ye
9 come to its grandest use, when the warrior
and the husbandman shall enter it side b!
/, side, and the soldier shall throw into it,
9 bank of fires his sword, and the farmeI
5 shall pick it up a plowshare, and thu
' straightest spear shall be bent into crool
at each end and then cut in two, and wha
Q was one spear shall be two pruning forks
3 Down with Moloch and up with Christ
i Let no more war horses eat out OF tn
q manger where Jesus was born.
T Peace! Forever roll off the sky the blacl
@ pillars of smoke from the Marengos ant
t Salamancas and Borodinos and Sedans ant
g Gettysburgs of earth! And right afte
Q them roll into the heavens the peaceful
= vapors Of the chimneys of farm houses
8 and asylums, and churches, and capitals o
b Christian nations, and as the sunligh
:. strikes through these vapors they vii
l. write in letters of jet and gold all over tn
r sky from horizon to zenith: "Glory to Co
s in the highest, and on earth peace, good vii
t toward menr' Then let all the men-of-Wa
@ fire broadside and all the forts thunde
r forth resounding volley, and the earth b.
s girled with the cannonade over the fna
u victory Of the truth.
It While thinking of these things locke
= from my window and the wind was vic
u lently blowing. And I saw from man
9 chimneys the smoke tossed in the air an
! whirled in great velocity, volume afte
r volume fold after fold and carried on til
n swift wind were the great pillars c
;: smoke. And helped by Solomon in tn
: text saw the speed Of the church symbo
lied. Do you realize the momentum tn
d church Of God is under? Why, the smok
/. of a chimney on the top of Mount Wasf
q ington when the wind is blowing sixt
:. miles the hour is slow as compared wit
Y the celebrity of good influences.
= For fiftv-nina centuries the devil had